Monday.com
Best overall alternativeVisual boards, colorful dashboards, and fast user adoption.
Best for: Cross-functional teams replacing Smartsheet
Pricing: ~US$8–US$12/user/mo
2025 Smartsheet Alternatives Guide
Best Smartsheet Alternatives for 2025 (Ranked & Compared)
Smartsheet is a powerful spreadsheet-style work management platform — but many teams outgrow grid-only workflows and need easier UX, better reporting, or more automation.
Vendor-neutral expert comparison.
Use with PMWorld360 ROI tools, templates & guides.
Why Teams Look for Smartsheet Alternatives
Smartsheet combines spreadsheets, automation, and dashboards, but as organizations mature, they often need cleaner UX, more visual boards, stronger native reporting, or better support for creative and agile workflows.
Grid-heavy UX slows non-technical users
Dashboards require heavy manual setup
Limited native resource management
Automations can feel complex to maintain
Collaboration feels constrained vs. modern tools
Creative and marketing teams prefer visual boards
SmartMatch™: Which Smartsheet Alternative Fits You Best?
Based on team size, workflow complexity, and reporting needs, use this quick guide to jump straight to your best-fit Smartsheet alternative.
- If you want the easiest rollout: Monday.com
- If you want deep customization & all-in-one: ClickUp
- If you want structured work without grids: Asana
- If creative proofing & approvals matter: Wrike
- If you’re an agency or client-services team: Teamwork.com
- If you’re documentation-first: Notion
- If you want database-style work management: Airtable
- If you’re a software or product team: Jira
1–10 users
Monday.com, Notion, or Airtable — fast onboarding, intuitive views, and minimal admin overhead.
11–50 users
Monday.com, ClickUp, Asana, or Wrike — stronger reporting, automations, and integrations for growing teams.
50+ users or PMO / enterprise
Wrike, ClickUp, Jira, or Teamwork.com — portfolio reporting, governance, and complex, multi-team workflows.
Top Smartsheet Alternatives at a Glance
ClickUp
Best all-in-oneHighly configurable workspaces with powerful automations and multiple views.
Best for: Teams needing more flexibility than Smartsheet
Pricing: ~US$7–US$19/user/mo
Asana
Best for structured workStructured list/board system built for clarity and visibility.
Best for: Teams moving from grids to clean, structured workflows
Pricing: ~US$11–US$25/user/mo
Wrike
Best for creative & opsRequest intake, proofing, approvals, and campaign workflows.
Best for: Marketing, creative, and professional services teams
Pricing: ~US$9–US$24/user/mo
Smartsheet
Spreadsheet-style work management with forms, dashboards, and automation. Many organizations start with Smartsheet and later explore alternatives to support more visual workflows or more intuitive collaboration.
- Pros: Familiar grid layout, forms, automation, and dashboards.
- Cons: Grid-heavy UX, limited native resource management, and dashboards that often require expert setup.
- Best fit: Ops-heavy teams already comfortable with spreadsheets who don’t need rich creative or agile workflows.
Best Smartsheet Alternatives (Detailed Summaries)
Use these short vendor summaries along with our full reviews to shortlist tools, plan pilots, and build your business case for moving beyond Smartsheet.
Recommended default for most teams
Monday.com
Visual boards, fast onboarding, and flexible dashboards.
- Pros: Easy to learn, excellent templates, strong dashboards and automations.
- Cons: Advanced reporting and security often live on higher tiers.
- Where it beats Smartsheet: More intuitive UI, easier dashboard setup, and higher stakeholder adoption.
Best all-in-one alternative
ClickUp
Tasks, docs, whiteboards, dashboards, and automations in one stack.
- Pros: Deep customization, many view options, strong automation engine.
- Cons: Can feel complex without a clear admin or governance model.
- Where it beats Smartsheet: Richer views beyond grids, more all-in-one capability, and stronger task-level automation.
Best for structured work
Asana
Structured tasks, projects, and portfolios with clear ownership.
- Pros: Clean interface, good portfolio views, strong task hierarchy.
- Cons: Limited native financial and resource capabilities.
- Where it beats Smartsheet: Easier standardization of workflows and better visibility in list/board formats.
Best for creative ops
Wrike
Request intake, proofing, approvals, and marketing workflows.
- Pros: Excellent for creative and marketing teams, strong automation and intake forms.
- Cons: Requires clear ownership to avoid configuration sprawl.
- Where it beats Smartsheet: Richer support for creative approvals, briefs, and campaign workflows.
Best for documentation-first teams
Notion
Documents, wiki, and databases in a single connected workspace.
- Pros: Extremely flexible pages and databases, ideal for knowledge management.
- Cons: Project management features are lighter versus dedicated PM tools.
- Where it beats Smartsheet: Knowledge management, documentation, and connected notes + tasks in one experience.
Best for agencies & client work
Teamwork.com
Project management purpose-built for agencies and client delivery.
- Pros: Time tracking, retainers, recurring work, and client-friendly reporting.
- Cons: Less focused on internal product development compared to Jira-style tools.
- Where it beats Smartsheet: Billing, client visibility, and managing multiple client projects under one roof.
Smartsheet vs Monday.com, ClickUp, Asana & Wrike
Use this high-level comparison to quickly narrow your shortlist before deep-diving into pilots and vendor demos.
| Platform | Ease of Use | Performance | Automation | Reporting | Best For |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Smartsheet | Medium | High | Strong | Very High | PMO / Operations / portfolio management |
| Monday.com | High | High | Strong | High | Cross-functional teams replacing Smartsheet |
| ClickUp | Medium | Medium | Very Strong | Medium | Technical & power users needing flexibility |
| Asana | High | High | Medium | Medium | Teams needing structured work & clarity |
| Wrike | Medium | High | Strong | High | Marketing, creative, and services teams |
How to Choose the Right Smartsheet Alternative
Instead of demoing 8–10 tools from scratch, use this simple framework to narrow your shortlist, then run focused pilots with 1–2 vendors.
Decision Flow
- Need very easy adoption across non-technical teams? Start with Monday.com.
- Need deeper customization and “all-in-one” than Smartsheet? Evaluate ClickUp.
- Prefer structured work over grids? Compare Asana with Monday.com.
- Run a creative / marketing or agency team? Prioritize Wrike or Teamwork.com.
- Documentation and knowledge management first? Test Notion and Airtable alongside your PM stack.
- Development or product teams? Consider Jira plus a lighter work management tool for non-dev stakeholders.
Implementation Checklist
- Document why Smartsheet no longer fits (pain points & constraints).
- List 3–5 representative projects and map them into each alternative tool.
- Define required views (boards, lists, Gantt, calendars, portfolios).
- Confirm integrations (Slack/Teams, CRM, finance, dev tools).
- Run a 30-day pilot with 1–2 tools and gather stakeholder feedback.
- Standardize templates, workflows, and governance before full rollout.
Pro tip: Treat your move away from Smartsheet as a formal project. Define clear success metrics (time saved, reporting improvements, adoption rates) so you can objectively compare alternatives and secure executive buy-in.
Smartsheet Alternatives FAQ
What is the best alternative to Smartsheet?
For most teams, Monday.com is the best all-around Smartsheet alternative. It offers highly visual boards, strong dashboards, and fast adoption across departments, making it easier to roll out than many spreadsheet-style tools.
Which Smartsheet alternative is easiest for beginners?
Monday.com and Asana are usually the easiest for beginners and non-technical users. They emphasize simple, visual boards and clear workflows that feel intuitive for stakeholders who aren’t project managers by role.
What is better than Smartsheet for reporting and PMO?
Wrike and ClickUp often provide more modern reporting and portfolio management options than Smartsheet, especially for PMO, operations, and professional services teams that need detailed dashboards and cross-project visibility.
What Smartsheet alternative works best for agencies?
Teamwork.com is a strong alternative for agencies and client-focused teams thanks to built-in time tracking, retainers, and client-facing reporting views.
What if we need something more flexible than Smartsheet?
If your team finds Smartsheet too rigid or grid-heavy for complex workflows, ClickUp and Monday.com are strong options. They offer more customizable fields, views, and automations, but work best with clear governance.
Can I migrate data from Smartsheet to another tool?
Yes. Most leading project management tools support CSV imports and can ingest exports from Smartsheet. A common best practice is to migrate active projects and core templates first, then bring over historical or archived work in later phases, if needed.
Next Step: Compare Your Top 2–3 Picks
Use PMWorld360 calculators & guides to quantify time saved, cost impact, and stakeholder adoption before you switch from Smartsheet.